486 SOME ABORIGINAL SITES ON RED RIVER. 
of Arkansas in proportion to the number of aboriginal sites encountered there, and 
would explain the unusually great deposits of artifacts associated with the dead. 
So little pottery was found by us in the Red river region in Louisiana that it 
would be unwise to draw conclusions. 
The aboriginal pottery of that part of Arkansas through which Red river runs 
(the extreme southwestern portion) is interesting, as is, in fact, that of much of the 
entire State. 
The Red river pottery of Arkansas as a rule is tempered with fine gravel or 
sand, or with small bits of pottery, though kitchen vessels there often are shell- 
tempered. The ware, as a rule, is thin and carefully modeled; even vessels 
designed for culinary purposes are symmetrical, as a general rule. 
The aboriginal potters along Red river in Arkansas evolved but few unusual 
shapes; grotesque forms or life-forms (except a few bowls with rude birds’ heads 
projecting vertically and conventional tails extending outward) were not attempted 
by the potters of the region, who perhaps considered such forms incompatible with 
their ideas of art. 
Many vessels from some of the sites of the Red river, Arkansas, region bear a 
high polish, and nearly all have incised or trailed decoration, though the designs 
vary but little. Circles, often series of concentric circles (probably sun-symbols), 
form a frequently-recurring design. 
Pigment on the pottery of this region was commonly employed in one manner 
only, namely, incised decoration filled in with red (oxide of iron) or with white 
(kaolin); and this was done very freely. A few vessels have scrolls in red on a 
background of the ware, and some of the pottery has a uniform coating of red, 
sometimes in connection with incised decoration, but this application of the pigment 
lacked care or skill, and vessels thus decorated generally present a shabby appear- 
ance. Decoration in polychrome was very exceptional. 
Incidentally it is interesting to note that the pottery of that part of southwest- 
ern Arkansas investigated by us differs in many respects from the earthenware of 
the St. Francis Valley and from the sites in northeastern Arkansas, near Missis- 
sippi river, as might be expected to be the case, since the northernmore territory 
lies in the Middle Mississippi region, while the more southerly region probably may 
be included in the Lower Mississippi province.’ 
In the region to the north we find earthenware modeled with grotesque figures 
and life-forms, decoration in polychrome, and comparatively infrequent occurrence 
of polished surface on the ware and of line decoration of merit. Besides, there are 
in northeastern Arkansas great numbers of vessels of coarse, thick ware, “lop- 
sided" (for asymmetrical is too mild a term to use in connection with them), and 
practically without decoration. All this is materially different from the character 
of the ware of the Red river region of the State, where more attention generally 
Sei. of Ph Hae VL XT Aboriginal Sites on Mississippi River," p. 370 et seq. Ив A GN Nah 
